What Makes Good Online Marketing Content?

I once worked with a broadcaster who hosted the morning drive show in Ottawa, Canada. We were having lunch one day and I asked him how he prepared for his show. He explained his secret show prep method to me and as I listened, my jaw slowly started to descend.

About twice a week he would board a random city bus in rush hour and ride along for an hour or two, listening to what people were talking about. Again randomly, he would choose a stop to get off at near some local breakfast diner and go in for a coffee. Once again, his objective was to be the “fly on the wall” and eavesdrop on what the talk of the day was.

According to him, about one trip a week provided more than enough show prep. Doing this allowed my colleague to discern what issues were relevant and resonating with people in his market. By being aware of what people were talking about, he was able to add his own voice to the discussion and feed the conversation further.

I was reminded of this when I read Mark Brownlow’s recent column at Email Marketing Reports. Mark skillfully tackles the why, what and how of quality content in email. Mark observes that all the technology tools we now have to reach out are wonderful, but are marketers giving people something worth talking about? It seems to me that if we were actually listening to what people want, we wouldn’t need to be reminded of the importance of relevancy so often.

What is quality content?

Here is how Mark defines it: “Consider quality content simply as any element in the message that provides standout value to the recipient (aside from the inherent ‘value’ of any offer).”

As Mark points out, good content is useful and/or entertaining and/or has emotional impact. I agree with him, but I think you could say that emotional impact is really the common factor here.

If your content is useful it provokes a positive emotional response.

If your content is entertaining it provokes a positive emotional response.

Mark states that the issue of emotional response is often overlooked and I agree. Perhaps it is overlooked because it is that underlying common denominator and not a separate factor. The question I’m asking here is: Can content in email or online marketing provoke any action without some kind of emotional response?

Add some positive emotion to my day. Make me laugh! Tell me a good story! Give me some information that excites me about what I can do with your product or service! Don’t just tell me what a product does. Tell me about what others are doing with it and make me so excited about trying that myself that I can’t wait to give it a go.

About Jim Ducharme

Jim Ducharme spent 15 years as a broadcaster before taking a different direction by studying computer programming and leaping from the analog to digital world. He spent years in the technical support field which included a stint in Silicon Valley in the midst of the dot com bubble. Through those years he’s been heavily involved in online community building and management. Jim was the inaugural editor for PC World Canada where he helped build one of Canada’s first major online tech brands. Jim also edited www.TheeMailGuide.com and was instrumental in building that brand via social media. Jim helps companies understand social marketing and helps them tell their stories. For more information on how he can help you, drop him a tweet follow Jim on Twitter here.
With his considerable experience in both traditional and new media, Jim has great perspective to offer.

Thanks for continuing the discussion Jim. I see your last paragraph as a call to arms. We’ve become so embedded in functional optimization and technological thinking that we continually lose sight of the fact that people are…um…people.

Jim Ducharme

Thank you Mark for starting it! You have a definite talent for pinpointing areas we all need to reconsider. You point is well taken about people being people. We keep forgetting that it’s not important what technology can do, but what we do with it.

I frankly don’t understand why we forget your last point in the digital world.

What Makes Good Online Marketing Content? Check out this post by @hugeheadca http://dld.bz/HQgN

http://twitter.com/markatemr/status/30553054621212672 Mark Brownlow

What makes good marketing content? @hugeheadca continues the thread: http://bit.ly/fpOrdb (+ reminds us that people are people)

http://twitter.com/emailblog/status/30555971939995648 Emailblog

RT @markatemr: What makes good marketing content? @hugeheadca continues thread: http://bit.ly/fpOrdb (+ reminds us that people are people)

http://twitter.com/hugeheadca/status/30591702288830464 Jim Ducharme

RT @MarkatEMR: What makes good marketing content? @hugeheadca continues the thread: http://bit.ly/fpOrdb (+ reminds us that people are p …

http://videomarketinggoldminebonus.net Sean

Forgetting that you’re trying to engage real people is endemic in online marketing. So often we see keyword stuffed sites or articles whose audience appears to be search engines, not the people who will be using them! Thanks for posting this.

Jim Ducharme

YW Sean and thank you for taking time to read and comment! I really appreciate your time and your contribution to the discussion!